The Revolt of 1857 the First War of Independence!

By the first half of the 19th century, the East India Company had
brought major portions of India under its control.
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One hundred years after the Battle of Plassey, anger against the
unjust and oppressive British Government took the form of a
revolt that shook the very foundations of British rule in India.

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While British historians called it the Sepoy Mutiny, Indian
historians named it the Revolt of 1857 or the First War of Indian
Independence. The Revolt of 1857 had been preceded by a series
of disturbances in different parts of the country from the late
eighteenth century onwards.

The Sanyasi Rebellion in North Bengal and the Chunar rebellion

in Bihar and Bengal broke out in the late eighteenth century.
There were several peasant uprisings in the mid- nineteenth
century, the most important of which were those by the Moplah
peasants of the Malabar and the Faraizi movement by Muslim
peasants in Bengal.
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The first half of the nineteenth century also witnessed a number

of tribal revolts. In this context, mention may be made of the
rebellions of the Bhils of Madhya Pradesh, the Santhals of Bihar
and the Gonds and Khonds of Orissa. However, all these
disturbances were localized. Although serious and, in some
cases, long drawn, these did not pose any serious threat to the
existence of the British Empire.
The Revolt of 1857:
The first expression of organised resistance was the Revolt of
1857. It began as a revolt of the sepoys of the Companys army
but eventually secured the participation of the masses. Its
causes lay deeply embedded in the grievances that all sections of
Indian society nurtured against the British rule.

Causes of the Revolt:

Political Causes:
The political causes of the revolt may be traced to the British
policy of expansion through the Doctrine of Lapse and direct
annexation. A large number of Indian rulers and chiefs were

dislodged, thus arousing fear in the minds of other ruling

families who apprehended a similar fate.
Rani Lakshmi Bais adopted son was not permitted to sit on the
throne of Jhansi. Satara, Nagpur and Jhansi were annexed
under the Doctrine of Lapse. Jaitpur, Sambalpur and Udaipur
were also annexed. Other rulers feared that the annexation of
their states was only a matter of time. The refusal to continue
the pension of Nana Saheb, the adopted son of Baji Rao II,
created hostility among the ruling class.
Moreover, the sentiments of the people were hurt when it was
declared that the descendants of the titular Mughal Emperor,
Bahadur Shah II, would not be allowed to live in the Red Fort.
The annexation of Awadh by Lord Dalhousie on the pretext of
maladministration left thousands of nobles, officials, retainers
and soldiers jobless. This measure converted Awadh, a loyal
state, into a hotbed of discontent and intrigue.
Social and Religious Causes:

A large section of the population was alarmed by the rapid

spread of Western civilization in India. An Act in 1850 changed
the Hindu law of inheritance enabling a Hindu who had
converted into Christianity to inherit his ancestral properties.
Besides, the missionaries were allowed to make conversions to
Christianity all over India. The people were convinced that the
Government was planning to convert Indians to Christianity.
The abolition of practices like sati and female infanticide, and
the legislation legalizing widow remarriage, were threats to the
established social structure.Even the introduction of the
railways and telegraph was viewed with suspicion.
Economic Causes:

In rural areas, peasants and zamindars resented the heavy taxes

on land and the stringent methods of revenue collection
followed by the Company. Many among these groups were
unable to meet the heavy revenue demands and repay their
loans to money lenders, eventually losing the lands that they

had held for generations. Large numbers of sepoys were drawn

from the peasantry and had family ties in villages, so the
grievances of the peasants also affected them.
The economic exploitation by the British and the complete
destruction of the traditional economic structure caused
widespread resentment among all sections of the people. After
the Industrial Revolution in England, there was an influx of
British manufactured goods into India which ruined industries,
particularly the textile industry, of India.
Indian handicraft industries had to compete with cheap
machine- made goods from Britain. India was transformed into
a supplier of raw materials and a consumer of goods
manufactured in Britain. All those people who previously
depended on royal patronage for their livelihoods were
rendered unemployed. So they bore a deep- seated grievance
against the British.
Military Causes:

The Revolt of 1857 started as a sepoy mutiny. It was only later

on that other elements of society joined the revolt.

Indian sepoys formed more than 87% of British troops in India.

They were considered inferior to British soldiers. An Indian
sepoy was paid less than a European sepoy of the same rank.
Besides, an Indian sepoy could not rise to a rank higher than
that of a Subedar

The extension of the British Empire in India had adversely

affected the service conditions of Indian sepoys. They were
required to serve in areas far away from their homes. In 1856
Lord Canning issued the General Services Enlistment Act which
required that the sepoys must be ready to serve even in British
land across the sea.
The Bengal Army was recruited from high caste communities
in Awadh. They were not prepared to cross the ocean (Kalapani)
which was forbidden as per Hindu religious beliefs. They
developed the suspicion that the Government was trying to
convert Indians to Christianity.After the annexation of Awadh
the Nawabs army was disbanded. These soldiers lost their
means of livelihood. They became bitter enemies of the British.
Immediate Cause:

The Revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of

greased cartridges. A rumour spread that the cartridges of the
new Enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs.
Before loading these rifles the sepoys had to bite off the paper
on the cartridges. Both Hindu and Muslim sepoys refused to use
them. Canning tried to make amends for the error and the
offending cartridges were withdrawn, but by then the damage
had been done. There was unrest in several places.

In March 1857, Mangal Pandey, a sepoy in Barrackpore, had

refused to use the cartridge and attacked his senior officers. He
was hanged to death on 8th April. On 9th May, 85 soldiers in
Meerut refused to use the new rifle and were sentenced to ten
years imprisonment.
Main events of the revolt:
Soon there was a rebellion in the Meerut Cantonment. The
Meerut Mutiny (May 9, 1857) marked the beginning of the
Revolt of 1857. The Indian sepoys in Meerut murdered their
British officers and broke open the jail. On May 10, they
marched to Delhi.
Capture of Delhi:

In Delhi the mutineers were joined by the Delhi sepoys and the
city came under their control. Next day, on 11th May, the sepoys
proclaimed the ageing Bahadur Shah Zafar the Emperor of
Hindustan. But Bahadur Shah was old and he could not give
able leadership to the sepoys. The occupation of Delhi was
short-lived.
Fall of Delhi:

The British finally attacked Delhi in September. For six days

there was desperate fighting. But by September 1857, the British
reoccupied Delhi. Thousands of innocent people were
massacred and hundreds were hanged. The old king was
captured and later deported to Rangoon where he died in 1862.

His sons were shot dead. Thus ended the imperial dynasty of the
Mughals.
Centres of the revolt:
The revolt spread over the entire area from the neighbourhood
of Patna to the borders of Rajasthan. There were six main
centres of revolt in these regions namely Kanpur, Lucknow,
Bareilly, Jhansi, Gwalior and Arrah in Bihar.
Lucknow:

Lucknow was the capital of Awadh. There the mutinous sepoys

were joined by the disbanded soldiers from the old Awadh
army. Begum Hazrat Mahal, one of the begums of the ex-king of
Awadh, took up the leadership of the revolt. Finally the British
forces captured Lucknow. The queen escaped to Nepal.

Kanpur:
In Kanpur the revolt was led by Nana Saheb, the adopted son of
Peshwa Baji Rao II. He joined the revolt primarily because he
was deprived of his pension by the British. He captured Kanpur
and proclaimed himself the Peshwa. The victory was shortlived.
Kanpur was recaptured by the British after fresh reinforcements
arrived. The revolt was suppressed with terrible vengeance. The
rebels were either hanged or blown to pieces by canons. Nana
Saheb escaped. But his brilliant commander Tantia Tope
continued the struggle. Tantia Tope was finally defeated,
arrested and hanged.
Jhansi:

In Jhansi, the twenty-two-year-old Rani Lakshmi Bai led the

rebels when the British refused to accept the claim of her

adopted son to the throne of Jhansi. She fought gallantly against

the British forces. But she was ultimately defeated by the
English.
Rani Lakshmi Bai escaped. Later on, the Rani was joined by
Tantia Tope and together they marched to Gwalior and captured
it. Sindhia, a loyal ally of the British, was driven out. Fierce
fighting followed. The Rani of Jhansi fought like a tigress. She
died, fighting to the very end. Gwalior was recaptured by the
British.

Bihar:
In Bihar the revolt was led by Kunwar Singh.
Suppression of the Revolt:

The Revolt of 1857 lasted for more than a year. It was

suppressed by the middle of 1858. On July 8, 1858, fourteen
months after the outbreak at Meerut, peace was finally
proclaimed by Canning.
Causes of the failure of the revolt:
Limited Uprising:
Although the revolt was fairly widespread, a large part of the
country remained unaffected by it. The revolt was mainly
confined to the Doab region. Sind, Rajputana, Kashmir, most
parts of Punjab. The southern provinces did not take part in it.
It failed to have the character of an all-India struggle.Important
rulers like Sindhia, Holkar, Rana of Jodhpur and others did not
support the rebels.
No Effective Leaders:
The rebels lacked an effective leader. Nana Saheb, Tantia Tope
and Rani Lakshmi Bai were brave leaders, no doubt, but they
could not offer effective leadership to the movement as a whole.
Limited Resources:
The rebels lacked resources in terms of men and money. The
English, on the other hand, received a steady supply of men,
money and arms in India.
No Participation of the Middle Class:

The English educated middle class, the rich merchants, traders

and zamindars of Bengal helped the British to suppress the
revolt.
Results of the revolt:
The great uprising of 1857 was an important landmark in the
history of modern India. The revolt marked the end of the East
India Companys rule in India. India now came under the direct
rule of the British Crown. This was announced by Lord Canning
at a Durbar in Allahabad in aproclamation issued on 1
November 1858 in the name of the Queen. Thus, Indian
administration was taken over by Queen Victoria, which, in
effect, meant the British Parliament. The Governor Generals
office was replaced by that of the Viceroy.

The Doctrine of Lapse was abolished. The right to adopt sons as

legal heirs was accepted. The Revolt of 1857 paved the way for
the future struggle for freedom in India.